Eleven years after retiring, an aging racehorse has become a symbol of Saratoga.

Jo Jo Geronimo, a bay Standardbred, won three of nine races as a trotter. Tendon problems forced him to stop racing in 2001.

But the sturdy pacer has shown there’s life after the harness track. The Saratoga Springs Police Department adopted Geronimo in 2003 and renamed him Jupiter. While many ex-Standardbreds are sold at auction for meat, Jupiter, 19, has grown into the unofficial sheriff of Caroline Street during boozy summer nights.

“Having a horse out there is like having five extra guys,” said Glenn Barrett, a mounted patrol officer who rides Jupiter. “You put the horse between two people fighting, it ends.”

Jupiter’s evolution from injured trotter to Saratoga security guard is told in Standardbred Old Friends, a 216-page book written by author Ellen Harvey of New Jersey that was published last month by Messenger Press. The work profiles 43 pacers – Jupiter is the youngest – and features photographs by Barbara Livingston of Saratoga Springs.

On Saturday, Jupiter will make a triumphant return to his hometown track at Saratoga Casino and Raceway for the sixth annual Joe Gerrity Jr. Memorial Pace, one of harness racing’s biggest events. Jupiter and Barrett will pose for pictures and “sign” copies of the book from 6:30 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. on the harness track apron. The horse and his handler started on the job the same day in 2003. Lots of horses have passed through this city’s racetracks, but Barrett says Jupiter is special because residents like equine stories with positive endings.

Standardbreds are prized for their calm and steady demeanor. They can live well into their 30s. Once their racing careers end, some serve in mounted patrols, therapy programs, jumper classes and programs for kids. But a “huge percent” are run through livestock auctions, shipped to Canada or Mexico and sold for meat, said Judy Bokman, executive director of the ​​Standardbred Retirement Foundation. The Millstone, N.J., organization finds homes for harness track horses. It’s completed 2,600 adoptions in 25 years. It now has 185 horses looking for homes. Bokman called Jupiter’s story “very rare, very lucky.”

The horse got a second chance thanks, in part, to its original owner, Joanne Hamilton of Ballston Spa. She donated the injured 1,200-pound animal to Saratoga Springs after the horse hung up its hooves. Hamilton compares Jupiter to a big dog that listens well.

After some training, Jupiter hit the streets in 2004. He first patrolled around the city’s racetracks, and police also used him to meet members of the public. Officers soon learned his true skill involved downtown crowd control. On many summer nights, Barrett sits atop Jupiter above the bars of Caroline Street. “Jup” typically works a late-shift starting at around 11 p.m. He’ll put in about 20 hours a week along with
King Tut, the police department’s other horse.

“He can save officers from getting hurt and his pure presence deters problems,” Barrett said. Jupiter is stalled on a Ruggles Road farm owned by Dennis and Joanne Walpole.

The horse has been assaulted twice on the job – punched in the face and slapped repeatedly in 2012. Both led to arrests. He once stepped on a woman’s foot, but has never hurt anyone, Barrett said. Jupiter loves carrots and mints.

Nice article and glad to see the harness track getting some ink in the Times Union. Last year a world record was set in the Gerrity and it wasn’t even mentioned in the TU. The best racing in town on Saturday will be at the harness track, but for some reason the TU sports department won’t cross the street to provide any coverage of it.

They first call the horse a trotter and then indicate its a pacer. Those are two different gaits within standardbred racing. Also very false that most standardbreds get auctioned for meat, sure it happens sometimes, but by no means do most people. In all my years working with standardbreds have I ever met or worked with a trainer that sold horses for meat.

John C.Perhaps the trainer does not sell directly to kill buyers.But,not thinking a large majority of them don’t end of on the kill floor is not a resonable assumption.
That is the problem for our equine now,people put their heads in the sand and won’t want to think that is what happens to them.
Every day of the week,our racing,sport,pleasure,show,pets,wind up on that thruck to die.
The only way to stop this is to make Xongress pass the S A F E ACT to make it illegal to transport out equine to slaughter within the U S OR OUT OF IT’S BORDERS.